City to rule on zoning requests, 2021 budget
♦ City commissioners will meet Monday via Zoom.
The Rome City Commission has public hearings scheduled for Monday on four rezoning requests and the proposed 2021 budget.
Commissioners will meet virtually, via Zoom, and the session can be viewed live on the City of Rome, GA Facebook page. Caucus is at 6 p.m. followed by the business meeting at 6:30 p.m.
The Rome- Floyd Planning Commission is recommending approval of all four rezoning requests. Two of them may have implications for the surrounding areas.
The owner of 9 Westlyn Drive is seeking suburban residential zoning so the house on the property can be sold. It’s currently zoned for community commercial use.
Senior Planner Brice Wood said there are six other homes on the street that also carry the wrong zoning. Staff is trying to contact the owners with an eye to scheduling a mass rezoning.
“More and more mortgage companies are now checking the zoning during the appraisal process,” the staff report notes, “because it would be detrimental to their business to loan money for a home that could not be rebuilt if it were destroyed by fire, tornado, etc.”
Improper zoning also affects the insurability of the property, it states.
A request to rezone 712 W. Second St. for residential use also made staff aware of a potential problem in that area of the Between the Rivers Historic District.
It’s zoned for office-institutional use and the house on the parcel was most recently used as a psychologist’s office. The owner wants to convert the house back to a residence, but homes aren’t allowed in O-I districts.
“Staff believes that much of this area should have been zoned Neighborhood Office
Commercial, which would still allow most of the nearby offices and light retail, but would also allow for the existing properties to continue be used as single-family residential, for which many of them were designed,” the report states.
Also up for a hearing and final decision is a request from Thomas Lambert for duplex residential zoning at 41, 42, 43, and 44 E. 16th St.
There are two duplexes on the parcel but the property is zoned high density traditional residential, which only allows one duplex. Lambert wants to subdivide the lot and sell one of the duplexes.
The recommendation for approval points out that, although DR would be a spot zoning, it wouldn’t change the character of the area because the two structures are already there.
Commissioners also are expected to approve Ronnie Kilgo’s application for light industrial zoning at 200 Old Lindale Road.
Kilgo wants to use the property as a truck terminal for his company, Rome L/P Gas. It’s zoned for multifamily residential use but there’s a metal building and a gas tank on it.
The recommendation notes that if Kilgo were to redevelop the property for industrial use, he’d have to comply with buffer and setback requirements, “which could - cent residential compared to what currently exists.”
The board also will take comments on the proposed budget for 2021 before voting on its adoption. The document is posted for review on the city’s finance department page of the website RomeFloyd.com.
Following their regular meeting, commissioners are scheduled to go into a closed session to conduct their annual evaluation of City Manager Sammy Rich.
Under the city charter, the city manager is in charge of hiring and firing along with day-to-day operations. The City Commission sets policy and hires the city manager.